Train to Guilin, South China (train journey 1,327 miles; total: 8980 miles)

China's transportation solution for it's 1.3 Billion people: Trains. It is said that at any given time, China's train system is carrying 10 million people. Fortunately, they weren't all on our train. In fact, we had exactly 4 people in our cabin.
China has 4 types of service on it's trains: hard seat, soft seat, hard sleeper, and soft sleeper. Most Chinese locals buy the cheap seats. We opted for the highest level (soft sleeper) for our 28 hour journey from Beijing to Guilin. Two Chinese men shared the 4 bunks in our private room in carriage number 9. The accommodations in the soft sleeper class are simple and comfortable. The rooms are about 8'x6' and air conditioned. The beds are upholstered in crushed blue velvet. It is just as soft (and stylish) as it looks.
The rocking of the train made it surprisingly easy to sleep. Our rest was only occasionally interrupted by violent rattles and shakes as the train changed speed – taking up slack space between the carriages, perhaps something to do with the age or style of these trains.

Outside the window, we saw a huge variety of Chinese farms, towns, and factories. We crossed the Yangtze river. Flew by rice paddies, geese and there herder (who knew?) and some oxen. The windows were dirty, so we didn't get any good pictures from the train.

The dining car had limited options. We dove into the packaged food we brought from the states for the first time. Mmmmm Quaker Instant Oatmeal never tasted so good. =) For lunch we had noodle thing with rice. Noodle thing consisted of brown spongy food, a duck egg (it had a green shell), steamed veggies, and unidentifiable fatty meat scraps. It was delicious. Our chopstick skills are really coming along and we impressed our Chinese cabin mates....until we dropped and sticky pile of rice in our Lonley Planet book. Now the Hunan Province is all stuck together.

We enjoy seeing the country fly by outside our train window. Also, on a budget conscious trip the train is a great option. This trip cost about 1/4 of what we would have spent flying (and we were in 1st class on the train!!). It cost us even less if you consider we didn't have to pay for a hotel room the night we slept on the train. Booking the China train tickets was tricky. There is very little English in the train station. We have a list of our destination cities written out in Chinese. There is a lot of grunting and pointing to get our point across. Also, The Man in Seat Sixty-One (expert on train travel) made our planning much easier.

From Guilin, we head to Yangshou. There is a beautiful river there where we will take a tour by bamboo raft and go mountain biking. It should make for a good weekend. Then we get back on a train southbound to Vietnam. That trip should only be about 10 hours. A walk in the park after this journey.